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A PC, gluten-free investment option --yummy!

Do you like puppies and kittens? Do you oppose injustice? Do you hate haters?
Are you worried about America's fiscal future: hyper inflation or a worthless
dollar?

Do you feel your Thrift Savings Plan options are too conservative, too
limited while at the same time too broadly based? Do you want to invest in social
or environmental causes? Want to put your retirement nest egg where your
principles are? If so...

Why not invest in targeted funds that support the things you support and
oppose the things you oppose. Great idea, especially if the government would set
up a low-fee option for you and give you a matching contribution, of up to 5
percent, if you contributed 5 percent or more. An all-around winner, right?

Among the big winners would be the people who operate (or would happily
set up) a fund — gold, real-estate trusts — that the government would
include in its 401(k) program: The Thrift Savings Plan.

Thanks to employee contributions, government matches and earnings (many
of the TSP funds were double-digit winners last year), the TSP had a year end-
balance of $397 billion! That's billion with a B. A lot of money. The kind that
makes people who make money off investment funds drool.

And since the TSP was set up, outside groups have been trying very, very
hard to get in too, so they can make a bundle while offering an investment option
attractive to some federal, military and postal investors.

The finders' fee for getting into the TSP (both political and financial)
would be huge as would the monthly cash inflow from feds who picked their options.

Over the years, various members of Congress have been persuaded to push
the TSP to include REIT (real estate investment trust) funds. Also gold and
precious metal funds. The REITs were touted as recession proof, until the
recession came along. Gold was said to be on a one-way trip up. Until last year
when it dropped 38 percent.

In the late 1990s, one member of the House pushed for the TSP to open up
a dot.com fund. The TSP declined, which is just as well since the dot.com bubble
burst shortly thereafter eliminating a lot of companies.

Over the years, the TSP has been pressured to allow socially-conscious
funds into the program. Politicians and outside groups have also sought out-of-
Sudan, out-of-South Africa and out-of-Northern Ireland funds. Last November, Rep.
James Langevin introduced a bill that would require the TSP to offer an SRI
(socially responsible investment) fund.

Whether it's gold, REITS, dot.coms or socially responsible options, the
TSP has so far rejected them on grounds that investors already have those options
in stocks in the C and S Funds, and also because the legislation which created the
Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board made clear that it was to provide
safe, varied investment options, not to further social goals.

You can still see the east-west divide in Berlin from space because of the use of
different lightbulbs. Many of the streetlamps in the eastern half of the capital
are gas-powered, which creates a softer illumination.

Senate bill would give GPO new name
New bipartisan legislation is aiming to rebrand the 153-year-old Government
Printing Office. But that doesn't mean you'll stop seeing the GPO initials stamped
on government documents any time soon. The bill, introduced by Sens. Amy Klobuchar
(D-Minn.) and Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.) last week, would retain GPO's familiar
initials, but change the official name of the agency to the "Government Publishing
Office."